UT-Austin officials say no bombs, 'confident that the campus is safe'

Campus buildings reopened at noon Friday

AUSTIN – It appears that what happened at the University of Texas this morning was just a big scare.

University officials and campus police said at a press conference a while ago the campus reopened at noon Friday, three and a half hours after receiving a bomb threat, forcing the school to evacuate all students, faculty, administrators, employees and anyone on the premises.

“We’re extremely confident that the campus is safe,” said UT President Bill Powers. “We are allowing people to go back into the buildings.”

At mid-morning University officials had issued the following statement:

“At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus. He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes. President Powers was notified and it was decided to evacuate all of the buildings out of an abundance of caution.”

Despite reopening the campus, classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.

This is the second major bomb threat in South Central Texas this summer.

On Aug. 1, the San Antonio International Airport shut down temporarily after officials learned of a similar phone-in threat.